Heath Ledger 'refused help for heroin abuse'

Heath Ledger's former girlfriend drove him to a drug rehabilitation centre last year to get treatment for abuse of heroin, cocaine and "a variety of pills" but he refused to go in and promised to clean up on his own, it has been claimed.

According to US Weekly magazine, Michelle Williams was so upset by the Australian actor's drug problems during their three-year relationship that she took him to the Promises Treatment Centre in Malibu, California, in March last year.

	Watch: Heath Ledger in his final role as the demented Joker in the new Batman movie

He refused to get out of the car but subsequently broke his promise to sort himself out, said the magazine, citing "multiple sources" for its claims.

The couple, who met on the set of the film Brokeback Mountain and were thought to have been engaged at one point, subsequently spent months fighting.

They broke up in September last year after realising "they were in way over their heads", a source told US Weekly.

Williams then allegedly demanded that Ledger, 28, who died in New York last week, be drug-tested whenever he was going to be alone with their young daughter.

The claims, which have yet to prompt any response from Ledger's family or his former girlfriend, follow allegations at the weekend that he was worried she was about to apply for sole custody of their child.

Rebecca White, who worked as a personal assistant to celebrities who knew Ledger, told the Mail on Sunday his friends blamed his death on tensions with "straitlaced" Williams over their two-year-old.

White said Williams threw Ledger out of their Brooklyn home last autumn "because he would be showing up all hours of the night with his band of hangers-on and doing drugs".

Two of Ledger's uncles have said that he would never have committed suicide but they deflected questions about whether he had suffered from depression.

Us Weekly cited two possible reasons for Ledger's drug problems.

One source attributed it to depression while another told the magazine he started abusing "in social situations in the industry".

Another said: "He drank a lot - drank to get drunk. It didn’t make him angry. Just somber."

An insider on the Swedish set of Williams’ latest film, Mammoth, said the actress "cried and screamed as soon as she heard" Ledger had died.

Six types of prescription pills for anxiety and sleeping problems were found in Ledger’' Manhattan apartment.

No illegal drugs were discovered but police tested a rolled-up $20 note found by his bed, failing to find any trace of drugs on it.

Ledger's father, Kim, visited his son's home on Tuesday to start gathering his possessions.

Funeral plans remain shrouded in secrecy but Ledger’s body will reportedly be buried in a pounds 14,000 mahogany coffin lined with cream-coloured velvet.